The Weekly Parable

Kevin pressed his foot on the accelerator, and his new Camaro took off, just a blur of red on the open road. His girlfriend laughed in the passenger seat next to him, her mouth open in an amazed smile, and Kevin grinned back. The Camaro shot down the highway in the early morning. Everything was right—the car; the woman next to him; the empty highway; the clear, pale sky of the new day.

The Camaro took the next hill like it was less than a speed bump. As Kevin crested the hill, another vehicle came into view ahead. Within moments, it became obvious that it was going much too slow for Kevin’s tastes and he would catch up quickly. But the highway was entering a canyon and the highway began winding back and forth, and passing wasn’t an option. If only the timing had been better and he had caught up to this other vehicle while he could pass!

As Kevin drew closer, he could see the other vehicle more clearly. It was a van probably 15 or 20 years old with fading paint and rust forming on the body along the wheel wells and running board. It pulled a small utility trailer whose load was piled high and covered with a tarp bound with old, fraying bungee cords. Kevin rolled his eyes. It was moving at 55 miles per hour, tops. Unbelievable! Kevin slowed and moved along at this snail’s pace, getting more and more irritated all the time. Couldn’t this person have picked another time to take this beater out on the road?

Kevin glanced at his girlfriend, who gave him a shrug and an apologetic smile, as if it were somehow her fault.

It went on like that for the next 20 minutes. Kevin started grinding his teeth and muttering under his breath. He felt trapped, and his frustration mounted. All the excitement he had felt at the beginning of this drive were gone. “Dude!” he exclaimed at length. “Just pull over for a second and let me pass! Come on!” He smacked the steering wheel with one hand. Then he turned up his music to distract himself.

At last, the highway straightened out, and Kevin drifted over to see if he could pass the van. He hurriedly moved back as a semi roared past. He looked one more time, saw the coast was clear, and stomped on the gas. The Camaro blasted forward. The van and trailer were in Kevin’s rearview mirror in two seconds. Kevin spared them one more glance, shook his head as he grumbled more unflattering sentiments at the other driver, and tried to recover the thrill he’d felt before he laid eyes on that van and trailer.

Chance watched the Camaro zip past him and fly up the highway ahead. He shared a look with his wife who sat shotgun, but in his weariness, he couldn’t bring himself to smile. What was there to smile about? Well, there were the kids in the van’s rear seats, sleeping peacefully because of the early hour in which they had had to leave the house they had been renting but could no longer afford.

Briefly, Chance wondered if things could get worse, but he forced himself to stop that line of thinking. Yes, he had lost his high-paying job due to a fiasco that hadn’t been his fault. No changing that now. Just as that was happening and his medical insurance had disappeared, their oldest daughter had experienced an accident. It was going to take all of their savings to pay the hospital bills. Also nothing to be done. They’d had to sell their vehicles and get this old van and trailer with the leftover cash. Chance sighed. He had owned a Camaro himself once, and how nice it would be to be able to drive one right now! But who knew if he would be able to own such a thing again any time soon.

To top it all off, the van was having some kind of engine trouble and Chance had found that if he plodded along and didn’t stop, it would run fine—but if he did stop, he had a hard time getting the van moving again and risked becoming stranded. So he kept their speed at 55 miles per hour in an attempt to have the best fuel economy and have to gas up as few times as possible.

He knew that his suboptimal speed on the highway must have frustrated the red Camaro’s driver, but slowing and pulling over to let him pass in that canyon would have been disastrous for Chance and his family’s ability to complete their journey.

At least Chance’s brother was willing to take them in for a while until they could get back on their feet. Chance rubbed at his eyes with one hand. At least he and his family were all okay. At least they had a way to get to his brother’s house. And at least they had each other.

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^{Photo by George Sultan on Pexels.com}

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